To the editor:

I was struck by the altruistic tone of Derek Bajema’s guest column on May 12. The president and chief executive officer of the Michigan Soft Drink Association described his industry’s “Bring Every Bottle Back” effort, including an enhanced recycling initiative in Marquette County. Projects like these, he says, will decrease the amount of plastic bottles in landfills and trash, reducing the soft drink industry’s “plastic footprint and creating a more circular economy for our 100% recyclable plastic bottles.”

It’s a lovely vision, and that is just about all it is. Since the 1980s, the plastics industry has promoted recycling, not as a true solution but as a red herring. The myth of recycling effectively draws our attention away from the fact that plastic waste is an environmental catastrophe driven by industry. According to a 2020 investigation by Frontline and National Public Radio, “Plastic Wars,” recycling has captured at best about 10% of plastic waste. The rest takes up space in landfills, blows across the countryside, and generates a biological nightmare in our oceans.

If Mr. Bajema and the industry he represents really cared about the environment, they would support deposits on all drink bottles–a strategy that actually does “Bring Every Bottle Back.” Instead, they continue to shove the plastic disposal problem downstream to consumers and cash-strapped local governments, all the while promoting a feel-good solution that doesn’t work.

So far, we’ve bought into the lie that we consumers are to blame for this disaster, that if only we would recycle, everything would be fine. It’s time to sweep aside the smoke and mirrors and put the responsibility where it belongs: with the manufacturers who are reaping the profits of this environmental cataclysm.